One of the most frustrating aspects of workers’ compensation is made more-so by the common practice of useless medical restrictions.

Return-to-work (RTW) is straightforward in theory and often a big hassle in practice. Theoretically, we need only match the employee’s medical restrictions to the physical demands of a given job and BINGO…return-to-work is done! In reality, we end up struggling with vague medical restrictions that leave us clueless about what work may be appropriate for an injured employee.

In an attempt to resolve the RTW issues, we waste a lot of time and resources seeking clarifications from medical providers, hiring consultants to perform task analyses and cajoling supervisors to modify the tasks in order to comply with restrictions.

Some 80 years ago, the notion of the “ruptured disc” entered the medical lexicon. In 1934, two orthopedic surgeons1 coined the phrase as an explanation for the back pain in the context of cauda equina syndrome (a rare but serious impingement of nerve roots in the lumbar spine). The label they chose has profoundly impacted persons with back pain and has driven up workers’ compensation costs. [Read more…]